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Wilhelm Stieber I

Biography Intell Prussia 20 Min Read

Having provided us with Clausewitz, Germany supplied an antidote in the guise of Wilhelm Stieber (1818–92). Not from Prussia himself, Stieber was born in Merseburg, Saxony, and had an English mother named Daisy who claimed descent from Oliver Cromwell. In 1820 the family moved to Berlin where his father held a position in the church. Naturally enough, Stieber was also…

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Intell 36 Min Read

Intelligence Post WWII Part II

Milan – RAID SAS – Darwin Settlement. Painting by Daniel Bechennec. Visit Daniel’s Website for some fantastic Paintings Read part I here: Intelligence Post WWII Part I Special forces are a distinctively British contribution to contemporary military capability. They have their origin in Winston Churchill’s directive of July 1940 to…

Intell 20 Min Read

OVERLORD and FORTITUDE I

When an eccentric genius called Geoffrey Pyke proposed constructing unsinkable aircraft carriers or freighters from enormous icebergs, Churchill ordered him to proceed – no idea that could conceivably help the Allies to win the war was too outlandish for this Prime Minister. Pyke’s team of scientists invented a kind of…

Intell 31 Min Read

OVERLORD and FORTITUDE II

Dummy landing craft Fortitude North and South constituted the main portion of the overall Bodyguard deception. Operation FORTITUDE SOUTH, developed by David Strangeways, aimed in the first instance to convince the Germans that there was another mighty force in Britain, as well as Montgomery’s (real) 21st Army Group: this was…

Intell 40 Min Read

SOE: The Trojan Horse

Henri DĂ©ricourt after arrest in 1946. After the Second World War the interrogation of German officials provided evidence that DĂ©ricourt was guilty of providing information to Abwehr and the Gestapo that led to the arrest and execution of several agents including Noor Inayat Khan, Vera Leigh, Yolande Beekman, Eliane Plewman,…

Intell 43 Min Read

SOE: The Rules of the Game

UNSPECIFIED – circa 1944: Headquarters of french Gestapo ensured complete arrest of the group;;1er rang – 1st row : Fritz Bittner (1), Karl Doring (2), Sattler (3), Boemelburg (4), Hans Kieffer (5), Reiser (6), Fritz Mohr (7), Arthur Katzemich (8);;2e rang – 2nd row : Roeding (1), Hans Hoppen (2),…

Intell 14 Min Read

ENIGMA MACHINE

General Heinz Guderian with an Enigma machine in a half-track being used as a mobile command center during the Battle of France, 1940 The main German cipher machine, derived from a Dutch invention that failed in several commercial models in the late 1920s. Various models of increasing complexity were used…

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Military Communication, the Korean and Vietnam Wars (1945-1975)

The SAGE building at McGuire Air Force Base, circa 1958. On the far left are…

The First Secret Missions over Great Britain

In the mid-1930s, the German high command was dominated by the view that the main…

KH-11/CRYSTAL program

The KH-11/CRYSTAL program had progressed to the point where it would soon become America’s sole…

The Wings of the Abwehr: The Dawn of Secret Missions

Theodor Rowehl The secret activities of the talented organizer of secret missions Theodor Rowehl left…